Canva

Canva Pty Ltd.

Type| Private
Industry|

* Graphic design
* Software

Founded| 1 January 2013; 13 years ago (2013-01-01)
Founders|

* Melanie Perkins
* Cliff Obrecht
* Cameron Adams

Headquarters|

Sydney

Australia

Area served

| Worldwide

Key people

| Melanie Perkins (CEO)
Products| Canva
Affinity
Revenue|  US$4 billion (2025)[1]
Members| 220 million users[2]

Number of employees

| 5,500[3] (2024)
Subsidiaries|

* Pixabay
* Pexels
* Serif
* Kaleido
* Leonardo
* Smartmockups
* Flourish
* Cavalry
* MangoAI
* Simtheory
* Ortto

Website| canva.com
Canva

Developer(s)| Canva Pty Ltd.
Initial release| August 2013; 12 years ago (2013-08)
Operating system| Web application, Android, iOS, macOS, Windows[4]
Available in| 100 languages[5]

List of languages

Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Cebuano, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Fulani, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazak, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maithili, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Norwegian, Oromo, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Simplified Chinese, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Strayan, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yoruba and Zulu

Type| Graphics software, Whiteboarding
License| SaaS
Website| canva.com

Canva Pty Ltd. is an Australian multinational proprietary software company launched in 2013 based in Sydney, Australia. The platform provides a graphic design platform to create visual content for presentations, websites, and other digital products.[6][7][8][9] Its uses include templates for presentations, posters, and social media content, as well as photo and video editing functionality.

The platform uses a drag-and-drop interface designed for users without professional design training or experience. Canva operates on a freemium model and has added features such as print services and video editing tools over time.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 1.1 2013–2020
* 1.2 2021–2025
* 2 Acquisitions
* 3 Philanthropy
* 4 Controversies
* 4.1 Data breach
* 4.2 Russian operations
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 External links

## History

### 2013–2020

Canva was founded in Perth, Australia, by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams on 1 January 2013. One of the company's early investors was Susan Wu, an American entrepreneur.[10] In its first year, Canva had more than 750,000 users.[11] In 2017, the company reached profitability and had 294,000 paying customers.[12]

In January 2018, Perkins announced that the company had raised Template:Australian dollar from Sequoia Capital, Blackbird Ventures, and Felicis Ventures, and the company was valued at Template:Australian dollar.[13][14][12] It raised Template:Australian dollar in May 2019,[15] followed by Template:Australian dollar in October 2019 and the launch of Canva for Enterprise.[16]

In December 2019, Canva announced Canva for Education, a free product for schools and other educational institutions intended to facilitate collaboration between students and teachers.[17]

### 2021–2025

In June 2020, Canva announced a partnership with FedEx Office[18] and with Office Depot the following month.[19] As of June 2020[update], Canva's valuation had risen to Template:Australian dollar rising to A$40 billion by September 2021.[20][21]

In September 2021, Canva raised US$200 million, with its value peaking that year at US$40 billion.[22][21] By September 2022, the valuation of the company had leveled at US$26 billion.[23]

While Canva's value declined from its 2021 peak by mid-2022, it remained one of Australia's most prominent technology companies, alongside Atlassian.[24][25]

In March 2022, Canva had over 75 million monthly active users.[26]

In 2023, the pair were named in the Australian Financial Review's AFR Rich List as among the 10 most wealthy people in Australia.[27]

On 7 December 2022, Canva launched Magic Write, which is the platform's AI-powered copywriting assistant.[28] On 22 March 2023, Canva announced its new Assistant tool, which makes recommendations on graphics and styles that match the user's existing design.[29] On 11 January 2024, Canva launched its own GPT in OpenAI's GPT Store.[30]

The company has announced it intends to compete with Google and Microsoft in the office software category with website and whiteboard products.[23]

In May 2024, the company announced the launch of Canva Enterprise, a plan designed for large organisations, alongside new tools including Work Kits, Courses and AI capabilities.[31] In 2024, it announced a co-funded solar energy project to enhance its sustainability efforts.[32]

On 10 April 2025, Canva released Visual Suite 2. The new interface combines Canva's design and productivity tools. New features include a spreadsheets application (Canva Sheets), a generative AI coding assistant (Canva Code), a chatbot, and an updated photo editor that can modify or remove background objects.[33]

In August 2025, Canva launched a stock sale to employees, valuing the company at US$42 billion.[34]

## Acquisitions

In 2018, the company acquired presentations startup Zeetings for an undisclosed amount, as part of its expansion into the presentations space.[35]

In May 2019, the company announced the acquisitions of Pixabay and Pexels, two free stock photography sites based in Germany, which enabled Canva users to access their photos for designs.[36]

In February 2021, Canva acquired Austrian startup Kaleido.ai and the Czech-based Smartmockups.[37]

In 2022, Canva acquired Flourish, a London-based data visualization startup.[38]

In March 2024, Canva acquired UK-based Serif, the developers of the Affinity suite of graphic design software, for approximately $380 million.[39][40]

In August 2024, Canva acquired the AI image generation platform and startup, Leonardo AI, for an undisclosed amount.[41]

In June 2025, it was announced that Canva had acquired Australian AI marketing startup MagicBrief for an undisclosed amount.[42]

In February 2026, Canva acquired two startups: Cavalry, which specializes in animation software, and MangoAI, which focuses on improving advertising performance.[43]

In April 2026, Canva acquired Simtheory, an AI Workflow Tool, and Ortto, a marketing automation tool.[44]

## Philanthropy

Canva's co-founders, Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, have publicly stated their intention to donate a significant portion of their personal wealth to charity.[45]

In 2021, Canva started a partnership with GiveDirectly, a nonprofit organization operating in low income areas that makes unconditional cash transfers to families living in extreme poverty. Since then, the company has donated $50 million to support GiveDirectly's work across Malawi.[46]

In 2025, Canva announced an additional $100 million commitment to expand its GiveDirectly partnership.[47]

## Controversies

### Data breach

In May 2019, Canva experienced a data breach in which the data of roughly 139 million users was exposed.[48]

The exposed data included real names of users, usernames, email addresses, geographical information, and password hashes for some users.[49]

In January 2020, approximately 4 million user passwords were decrypted and shared online.[50] Canva responded by resetting the passwords of every user who had not changed their password since the initial breach.

### Russian operations

In May 2022 Canva was criticized for continuing to provide free access to its services in Russia, even after suspending payment processing in the country.[51]

Activists from the Ukrainian diaspora in Australia and others said this could be viewed as indirectly supporting Russia’s war effort. They noted the company was the only one of several major Australian firms to receive the lowest “digging in” rating on a tracker run by the Yale School of Management for failing to pull out of Russia.[52]

Canva responded that it had suspended financial transactions in Russia from March 2022 and maintained the free version to allow the continued creation and sharing of “pro-peace and anti-war” content for its 1.4 million Russian users.[53]

## See also

* Adobe — American multinational software company
* Figma — Online collaborative vector graphics editor
* Comparison of desktop publishing software

## References

1. ↑ Novet, Jordan (23 February 2026). "As Wall Street punishes software stocks over AI concerns, Canva gets more acquisitive". https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/23/canva-acquires-cavalry-for-motion-graphics-and-mangoai-for-video-ads.html.
2. ↑ Turk, Victoria (12 October 2024). "Canva Revolutionized Graphic Design. Will It Survive the Age of AI?". Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/canva-ceo-melanie-perkins-interview/.
3. ↑ Bonyhady, Nick (10 April 2024). "Canva agrees to settle unfair dismissal case from senior engineer". Australian Financial Review. https://www.afr.com/technology/canva-agrees-to-settle-unfair-dismissal-case-from-senior-engineer-20240410-p5fir5.
4. ↑ "Technical Requirements". https://www.canva.com/help/technical-requirements/.
5. ↑ "Canva". https://www.canva.com/.
6. ↑ "ABN Lookup" (in en). 2014-11-01. https://abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View?abn=80158929938.
7. ↑ Perez, Sarah (26 August 2013). "Canva Launches A Graphic Design Platform Anyone Can Use". Tech Crunch'. https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/26/backed-by-3-million-in-funding-canva-launches-a-graphic-design-platform-anyone-can-use/.
8. ↑ Lancet, Yaara; Zukerman, Erez (7 January 2014). "Canva review: Free tool brings much-needed simplicity to design process". PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2079100/canva-review-free-tool-brings-much-needed-simplicity-to-design-process.html.
9. ↑ Swallow, Erica (18 November 2013). "Canva Makes Great Design More Accessible". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericaswallow/2013/11/18/canva/.
10. ↑ "Susan Wu, tech entrepreneur and start-up adviser". 11 March 2018. https://www.vogue.com.au/gamechangers/technology-and-business/susan-wu-tech-entrepreneur-and-startup-adviser/news-story/d47c71f296936e24192d86b6d3532ed0.
11. ↑ Campbell, Rebekah (15 September 2014). "The Problem With Going Into Business With a Friend". The New York Times. http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/the-problem-with-going-into-business-with-a-friend/. , with a loss of Template:Australian dollar
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "New Sequoia China investment values Australian design company Canva at $1 billion – TechCrunch" (in en-US). 8 January 2018. https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/08/new-sequoia-china-investment-values-australian-design-company-canva-at-1-billion/.
13. ↑ Stanton, Kate; Griffith, Hywel (9 January 2018). "The 30-year-old woman who designed a $1bn business". BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-42552367.
14. ↑ Chau, David (9 January 2018). "Canva: Online design startup joins generally overvalued 'unicorn' club". ABC News. Australia. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-09/canva-australian-unicorn-1-billion-valuation/9312458.
15. ↑ Clark, Kate (20 May 2019). "Graphic design platform Canva valued at $2.5B with new funds". https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/20/graphic-design-platform-canva-valued-at-2-5b-with-new-funds/.
16. ↑ Cook, Jordan (16 October 2019). "Canva, now valued at $3.2 billion, launches an enterprise product". https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/16/canva-now-valued-at-3-2-billion-launches-an-enterprise-product/.
17. ↑ Hennessy, James (6 December 2019). "Canva has announced a slew of new products, including a video editing tool and an education offering" (in en). Business Insider Australia. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/canva-new-products-canva-video-apps-2019-12.
18. ↑ Crook, Jordan (17 June 2020). "Canva design platform partners with FedEx Office as it pushes further into the US". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/16/canva-design-platform-partners-with-fedex-office-as-it-pushes-further-into-the-u-s/.
19. ↑ "Office Depot Enhances Print Services Portfolio with New Graphic Design Solutions Powered by Canva". Bloomberg. 16 July 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-07-16/office-depot-enhances-print-services-portfolio-with-new-graphic-design-solutions-powered-by-canva.
20. ↑ Tse, Crystal; Roof, Katie; Tan, Gillian; Lee, Yoolim (22 June 2020). "Australia's Canva Startup Almost Doubles Valuation to $6 Billion". Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-22/australia-s-canva-raises-60-million-at-6-billion-value.
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Canva: Australian online design platform valued at $40bn". BBC. 16 September 2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58567722.
22. ↑ Konrad, Alex. "Canva Raises At $40 Billion Valuation — Its Founders Are Pledging Away Most Of Their Wealth" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2021/09/14/canva-raises-at-40-billion-valuation-and-founders-pledge-away-their-wealth/.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Bonyhady, Nick (14 September 2022). "Canva to go up against Microsoft and Google" (in en). https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/canva-to-go-up-against-microsoft-and-google-20220914-p5bhy6.html.
24. ↑ "Blackbird reveals Canvas' $14b plunge in value" (in en). 26 July 2022. https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/blackbird-reveals-canva-s-14b-plunge-in-value-20220726-p5b4k7.
25. ↑ Yun, Jessica (17 January 2023). "'Orange is the new Palo Alto': Why the next Atlassian, Canva will be from the bush" (in en). https://www.smh.com.au/business/entrepreneurship/orange-is-the-new-palo-alto-why-the-next-atlassian-canva-will-be-from-the-bush-20230117-p5cd50.html.
26. ↑ Aziz, Afdhel. "How Canva Is Being A Force For Good By Empowering The Whole World To Design" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2022/03/31/how-canva-is-being-a-force-for-good-by-empowering-the-whole-world-to-design/.
27. ↑ "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed" (in en). 24 May 2023. https://www.afr.com/rich-list/australia-s-10-richest-people-revealed-20230523-p5dapa.
28. ↑ "AI text generation is moving mainstream with Canva's Magic Write" (in en). https://www.pcworld.com/article/1424421/ai-text-generation-is-moving-mainstream.html.
29. ↑ Malik, Aisha (23 March 2023). "Canva unveils a series of new features, including several AI-powered tools" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/22/canva-new-features-including-suite-of-ai-powered-tools/.
30. ↑ Hollander, Roger (13 January 2024). "The Most Popular GPTs in the OpenAI GPT Store" (in en-US). https://www.gptreview.io/blog/the-most-popular-gpts-in-the-openai-gpt-store.
31. ↑ Wood, Chris (23 May 2024). "Canva Introduces Canva Enterprise, Work Kits and adtech apps.". https://martech.org/canva-introduces-canva-enterprise-work-kits-and-adtech-apps/.
32. ↑ "Canva | Redesigning Design with Method Recycling" (in en). 1 May 2018. https://methodrecycling.com/world/canva.
33. ↑ Weatherbed, Jess (2025-04-10). "Canva is now in the coding and spreadsheet business" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/news/646682/canva-visual-suite-2-0-ai-spreadsheets-creative-workspace.
34. ↑ "Australia's Canva begins share sale at $42 billion valuation". Reuters. 20 August 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-canva-begins-share-sale-42-billion-valuation-2025-08-20/.
35. ↑ Powell, Dominic. "SmartCompany". https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/canva-makes-first-acquisition-of-presentations-startup-zeetings-to-end-death-by-powerpoint/.
36. ↑ Jonathan, Shieber (17 May 2019). "Australia's design unicorn, Canva, picks up two free image-sharing services, and launches new photo product". https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/17/australias-design-unicorn-canva-picks-up-two-free-image-sharing-services-and-launches-new-photo-product/.
37. ↑ Lee, Yoolim (22 February 2021). "Australia's Canva Buys European Design Startups to Fuel Growth" (in en). Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-22/australia-s-canva-buys-european-design-startups-to-fuel-growth.
38. ↑ Hall, Christine (2 February 2022). "Canva acquires Flourish in mission to tell better stories with data". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/02/canva-acquires-flourish-in-mission-to-tell-better-stories-with-data/.
39. ↑ Bonyhady, Nick (26 March 2024). "Canva's billion-dollar bet on a 37-year-old Nottingham company". https://www.afr.com/technology/canva-s-billion-dollar-bet-on-a-37-year-old-nottingham-company-20240321-p5fea0.
40. ↑ Miller, Ron (26 March 2024). "With Affinity acquisition, Canva should be able to compete better with Adobe's creative tools". https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/26/with-affinity-acquisition-canva-should-be-able-to-compete-better-with-adobes-creative-tools/.
41. ↑ Jones, Tegan (30 July 2024). "Canva snaps up Leonardo.AI in blockbuster acquisition" (in en-AU). https://www.smartcompany.com.au/exclusive/canva-snaps-up-leonardo-ai-blockbuster-acquisition/.
42. ↑ "Deal-making Canva reports spike in paying users as it nears IPO" (in en). 17 June 2025. https://www.afr.com/technology/deal-making-canva-reports-spike-in-paying-users-as-it-nears-ipo-20250616-p5m7q4.
43. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (2026-02-24). "Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/23/canva-acquires-startups-working-on-animation-and-marketing/.
44. ↑ "From idea to outcome: Welcoming Simtheory and Ortto to Canva" (in en-US). https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/simtheory-ortto-join-canva/.
45. ↑ "Canva founders to give $16.5b fortune away" (in en). 14 September 2021. https://www.afr.com/technology/canva-doubles-to-55b-valuation-after-fresh-raise-20210915-p58rq3.
46. ↑ Perkins, Melanie; Obrecht, Cliff (2025-10-09). "Why we chose to invest another $100 million in cash transfers". https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/give-directly-update-2025/.
47. ↑ Oloo, Carlton (2025-10-09). "Canva pledges $100M for unconditional cash to boost local economies through cash in Malawi". https://africasustainabilitymatters.com/canva-pledges-100m-for-unconditional-cash-to-boost-local-economies-through-cash-in-malawi/.
48. ↑ "Australian tech unicorn Canva suffers security breach" (in en). https://www.zdnet.com/article/australian-tech-unicorn-canva-suffers-security-breach/.
49. ↑ "139 Million Users Hit in Canva Data Breach" (in en). 24 May 2019. https://www.tomsguide.com/us/canva-data-breach,news-30165.html.
50. ↑ "Canva Security Incident – May 24 FAQs". 17 January 2020. https://www.canva.com/help/incident-may24/.
51. ↑ "Canva - Australia for Ukraine!" (in en-US). 2022-05-24. https://ukrainians.org.au/canva/.
52. ↑ Butler, Ben (2022-05-17). "Australian tech company Canva continues operating in Russia in face of Ukrainian outrage" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/18/australian-tech-company-canva-continues-operating-in-russia-in-face-of-ukrainian-outrage.
53. ↑ Bonyhady, Nick (2022-06-01). "Canva blocks Russia after pressure, joining global exodus as war drags on" (in en). https://www.smh.com.au/technology/canva-blocks-russia-after-pressure-joining-global-exodus-as-war-drags-on-20220601-p5aq7v.html.

## External links

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